Restaurateur comes home after tsunami

BANGALORE: Thirteen years ago, when Anil Raj moved to Tokyo with a Swiss bank job in hand, he had no clue he'd have his fingers in the restaurant business. But after Japan was struck by one disaster after another, he is returning to Bangalore, his home. The restaurant has been shut down, temporarily.
Anil, his team of six Indian chefs and supporting staff, decided to come to the city after the threat of nuclear radiation was confirmed in Japan."Food contamination has been confirmed. Anil did not want to take a chance by selling food in case it's contaminated. "If a problem were to develop, customers could sue the restaurant. We thought of shutting it temporarily," said Chandrashekharan A, Anil's father.
Anil's wife had come on holiday to India only a day before the tsunami struck, but has returned to Japan to help bring the group back. Anil also employed four to five Japanese employees. They still hope the restaurant can be reopened when things return to normal.
"He was doing really well there. It was one of the few restaurants offering Indian food. We had chefs from Kerala, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and other states. It was a popular place among Indian employees in corporate companies. Even the Indian embassy used to place orders when they had guests," said Chandrashekharan.
Nirvanam, the restaurant, was not a planned move. In fact, Anil was a database manager with Credit Swiss Bank. "However, he couldn't develop a taste for the food there at all. So, he thought it would be a good idea to start a restaurant. It turned out to be more lucrative too. He expanded it to two and was planning to open one more ," he said.
A permanent resident of Japan, Anil can go back. "As a father, I need to ensure his safety first. Money comes later. If things are fine, he will move back," said his concerned father.